Category Archives: TV

Confession time: I was pretty reluctant to watch Santa Clarita Diet. I may be a diehard zombie fan, but even I’m starting to feel the effects of 10+ years of zombie properties saturating the market. I’m glad I gave in to curiosity after seeing that so many of the people I follow on Twitter had nothing but great things to say about it.

I cannot overstate what a delight this show is. It has a unique brand of humor that reminds me of the first time I saw Arrested Development: it takes an episode or two to “get” the rhythm of the humor, but once you do it’s almost addictive.

Santa Clarita Diet is about a suburban realtor, Sheila Hammond (Drew Barrymore), who turns into a flesh eating zombie. Her husband, Joel Hammond (Timothy Olyphant), chooses to support her and assist with hunting down prey. It’s oddly romantic how willing Joel is to follow his wife down this crazy rabbit hole, but it becomes clear that these high school sweethearts share the kind of love that wouldn’t allow either of them to abandon the other to fights such a horrific fate alone.

Complicating the matter is the fact that their house is located right between two police officers, Rick (Richard T. Jones) and Dan (Ricardo Chavira) who often show up unannounced. They also have a teenage daughter named Abby (Liv Hewson) who begins acting out in response to the new family secret.

Barrymore and Olyphant have amazing chemistry, and it’s this facet that really sells the show in an age when zombie stories are so common that there’s arguably a whole a subgenre consisting of “cute blonde women who become zombies and try to hang on to their human lives.” Olyphant in particular delivers a truly showstopping performance. Joel is the moral and functional center of the family, trying to keep everyone else from flying out of orbit as life (and undeath) starts to pull them apart.

The only potential downside to this show, depending on the viewer’s constitution, is an almost awe-inspiring amount of gore. Many episodes could give The Walking Dead and various zombie feature films a run for their money. It’s always played humorously, but more squeamish viewers should be prepared to cover their eyes now and then.

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Today is the 20th anniversary of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, arguably one of the most influential television shows in history. On March 10th, 1997, ‘Welcome to the Hellmouth’ lit up television screens across America and changed the creative landscape forever. Buffy the Vampire Slayer gave us a petite heroine who defied preconceived culture norms about what ‘type’ of woman could be an ass-kicking action adventure lead.

In a culture where virtually anything and everything about teenage girls is routinely mocked, Buffy Summers was a wannabe cheerleader who saved the world a hundred times over while embracing youthful femininity. Cute boys and stylish shoes were as much a part of her life as being the Chosen One. It was a subtle yet powerful message that young girls who are so often taught to think in terms of “shallow girly-girls” vs “cool not-like-other-girls” needed.

As an actor, you wish for that one role where you can leave your mark and forever be remembered, with Buffy I got so much more. She’s a feminist challenge to gender hierarchy. Buffy may have been the Chosen One, but I was the lucky one.

Though the characters and snappy dialogue were the hallmarks Buffy the Vampire Slayer was so well known for, its impact on the structure of dramatic tv cannot be understated. It’s hard to imagine so many years into the golden age of TV that began in the late aughts, but networks originally fought tooth and nail against season-long story arcs and character evolution. They wanted self-contained episodes and a slate that was essentially wiped clean after every one, to make shows easier to get into mid-season by new viewers.

Joss Whedon was one of a handful of pioneers who fought to tell a complex story that grew and matured. Though monster-of-the-week episodes were a staple of the show’s early period, even then there was a “big bad” introduced in the very first episode and plot threads that would run through the entire season. Subsequent seasons relied ever more heavily on weaving together story arcs that would intersect and boil up to a dramatic climax in each season finale.

The result was a rich, complex story and dynamic characters who changed in response to the events they experienced. No character stayed static and unchanging. Trauma, grief, and even joy were things that effected every recurring character. In 2017 that seems like an odd thing to be held up as unique and unusual, but in the 90s it was exceedingly common for characters to be written as if they hadn’t experienced any of the traumatic events in previous episodes. Things that should have been life-altering were often never referenced again. Buffy broke from this tradition and was an infinitely better show for doing so.

Nobody could have known in 1997 that a small blonde Valley girl with a penchant for slaying demonic monsters would become such a cult hit, or that the creator would amass a legion of loyal fans who would go on to call themselves Whedonites. People rarely know they’re taking part in a cultural phenomenon until it’s well underway. They just enjoy the journey as it happens. Twenty years later, we are all so thankful for being given the chance to take part in that journey.

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CBS has announced that shortly after the 50th anniversary of the historic Star Trek franchise, a new tv series will be released via All Access, their paid streaming service. All first run episodes will be exclusive to the All Access service.

Leslie Moonves, CEO of CBS Corp, explained to The Hollywood Reporterthat their new entry in the Trek franchise will be used to lure millions of viewers to All Access, and that it will be the first of multiple scripted originals for their streaming service.

As several sources have emphasized that first run episodes of the new Star Trek will be exclusive to the service, there seems to be a slight possibility that reruns could perhaps appear either on broadcast TV or other streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon. However, no source has so far hinted at any information the likelihood of such viewing options or how long after the first run episodes reruns might become available if CBS decided to go that route.

The new Star Trek will not be related to the rebooted movie franchise, but longtime J. J. Abrams partner and screen writer for the films Alex Kurtzman will be the executive producer along with Heather Kadin.

From the CBS press release:

The brand-new Star Trek will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966.

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Agent Carter, subject to a criminally short 8 episode run in its debut season, is now available on DVD.

Originally it sounded like a tough sell. Peggy Carter of Captain America was a likable enough character, but she had no super powers and much of her role revolved around supporting Steve Rogers. Many wondered not only how she could star in her own series, but who would be the supporting cast when the bigger names were obviously going to be reserved for the movies.

Agent Carter, I can happily report, managed both feats astonishingly well. Peggy is presented as a capable woman experiencing what many female soldiers faced when World War II ended and gender roles snapped back into their rigid standards with heartbreaking ease. A realistic, if at times frustrating, world was built around her by the writers, filled with realistically flawed coworkers who struggle to understand why she wants to continue working as an agent of the SSR when she is relegated to picking up lunch orders and answering phones.

A solid balance is struck between intelligent and rewarding character development and the sort of fast-paced action scenes the audience would expect from a Marvel production. Agent Carter is thrust into a world of espionage and highly trained assassins when she is asked to help Howard Stark–Iron Man’s father–clear his name after many dangerous inventions are stolen and sold on the black market, making him a suspect of treason. Edwin Jarvis (another name familiar to fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Tony Stark’s virtual assistant) is tasked by his employer Howard Stark to assist her in the task of clearing his name.

One of the most pleasant surprises about Agent Carter is that she’s never presented as–nor does she ever claim to be–better than “typical women.” Never once do the writers put forth the tired trope about most women being vain and useless, while the female lead is set apart from the vapid masses by her willingness to be “one of the guys.” She owns her femininity, and is given several positive female friendships. Agent Carter is a series that quietly but firmly shows that women are often held back in a professional setting because men–either willfully or even without intending any malice–underestimate the competence of women who refuse to strip themselves of anything overtly feminine.

Agent Carter is easily one of my favorite entries set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I hope you will all enjoy it as much as I have.

Incidentally, this post was originally supposed to be titled, “Agent Carter DVD Release Is Fierce And Fabulous,” but sadly Marvel wasn’t willing to put much effort into the DVD or Blue-Ray sets. The Blue-ray set has a small featurette. The DVD set has a blooper reel. It’s a substandard product but I bought it to support the series and show Marvel that there is a strong consumer interest in continuing it. I hate being put in the position of either rewarding a business for charging full-price for a few episodes and fewer bonus features, or sending the message that Marvel should cut its losses and cancel the show.

Disney has clearly decided to fast-track its new Star Wars properties. Rebels, set during the twenty year gap between the two trilogies, will be premiering in the Fall of 2014 on Disney according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Star Wars Rebels will open with an hour long special on the Disney channel, followed by regular half hour episodes on Disney XD.

The most interesting news (to me, anyhow) is that Filoni says that we will finally be seeing the familiar imagery of the original trilogy.

While I’m not as militant as most in my dislike of the prequels, I’ve always thought that they just didn’t look or feel like Star Wars. I’m especially pleased by Joel Aron’s statements regarding the palette and lighting hybridization between Ralph McQuarrie’s artwork and A New Hope. I have high hopes that they’ll be moving away from the more sterile, ultra-bright visuals of the prequels and Clone Wars series. Greg Weisman, executive producer on the childhood favorite of many a 90s kid–Gargoyles–is another great name attached to this project.

Much as I’m disappointed by the fact that Seth Green’s Star Wars: Detours appears to be on indefinite hiatus, I’m very excited for this new series.

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If you’ve never heard that phrase, spoken with an apathetic Irish brogue, you’re missing out. The IT Crowd is a show I’d heard of from time to time in geeky circles, and I’d seen it mentioned on a number of “must see” British TV lists, but it languished in my Netflix queue for quite a while before I discovered what a gem this show is.

The IT Crowd centers around the IT department of a large corporation, herded by a social butterfly who lies through her teeth to get the job despite knowing nothing about computers. The cast is flawless, and most of the plots are fairly original (it helps that like many British shows, the seasons are too short to require filler episodes). The characters also tend to get equal treatment, and it’s refreshing to see a sitcom where one character doesn’t slowly become more and more outrageous until they steal the spotlight (see: Sheldon Cooper, Stewie Griffin, etc.)

There are a few minor flaws in an otherwise wonderful show; it tends to reinforce the stereotype of women just pretending to know about tech, and plays up the basement-dwelling stigma of nerds a bit much. But overall the show pokes fun without being mean about either characterization. There was, unfortunately, a very transphobic episode in the last season, and it culminates in what is definitely the show’s cruelest moment.

I’ll leave you with a clip from the show’s first episode, where we meet Jen for the first time. It sets up her penchant for unabashed lying, which remains a character flaw she struggles with for most of the show:

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This season’s premiere of the Walking Dead opened with a lot of action, but unfortunately the characterization was not a huge improvement over last year. This seems like it’s going to remain a show I watch in order to see what happens rather than because I’m rooting for the characters (besides Daryl, naturally).

I’m torn because I love zombie properties, but I’ve always favored character-driven rather than concept-driven television. It’s a new experience for me to sit and watch people I really don’t like for 44 minutes. No matter how cool a scene is, it’s very hard for me to be invested in it if I don’t care about the characters. Even with the characters I do like, it’s more of a lukewarm appreciation rather than the passion that I normally feel towards my favorite characters. To be fair, that may also be because most of the characters I like are minor ones, and their stories have been abbreviated in order to accommodate the unending and uninspiring soap opera between Rick, Lori, and Shane. Despite all hopes the contrary, Shane’s death hasn’t put the slightest dent in the writers’ enthusiasm for this tortuous and wholly unnecessary drama.

Michonne was by far the biggest highlight of the episode; I spent most of the premiere wishing she and Andrea had more screen time. The prisoner reveal at the end brings the hope that the cast might be rounded out with a few more likeable people. If only we could count on Rick, Lori, and Carl all going the way of Dale and Shane, the show would look as if it were going to be downright good, especially with the eventual addition of the Governor. Is it wrong that I find myself rooting for him just because I know he’s going to challenge Rick?

“I wish they’d have more storylines about Carl,” said absolutely nobody.

On a more unfortunate note, it seems the writers–for reasons known only to themselves–decided to take a page from George Lucas’s handbook and set up a romance between a child and a teenage girl, to take the characters to new heights of repulsiveness, and possibly to prove that the writers just aren’t terribly fond of women. This is one trainwreck I hope gets dealt with quickly rather than be allowed to drag out over the course of the season.